Birdsonghill
Crowing
I am sad to say yes on both accounts. I worked for the local health dept. 9 years as a fieldman and an Inspector. My specialty was pest control and I worked mostly in Rodent, mosquito and other vectors of disease control. However, do to my reputation for being a hunter trapper as a boy, I quickly became the guy called to control beavers on sewage lagoons, coyotes, fox, minks and raccoons that were problems on the Local County Penal Farm or for citizens complaints occasionally, that was considered a problem by the county mayor or some official. As a CDC/HEW trained employee, We were allowed to use products and methods not open to even pest control lic. companies. I have poisoned Beavers and accidently foxes. I detest poisoning wildlife. I used leg hold traps very successfully for mink, muskrats,fox and coyotes. Those methods are a bit different, sometimes, rather than live traps. I preferred and still do live traps, but often used leg or lethal traps for the government back then. I have live trapped two foxes, a bobcat, many dogs, cats, skunks,raccoons,opossums and other animals, including a coy dog, that was a known pet killer. The thing with foxes when live trapping, is to allow them to see thru the cage from end to end, but well camo the sides with natural materials from the area (earth , moss, twigs, limbs, grasses,etc.) You should use a larger size live trap cage for foxes, than for raccoons. Jack mackerel is a great bait for most meat eaters! The cage/trap must be clean of your smell and soap smell. I usually use a fairly dirty cage that I never touch with bare hands after boiling in a tub of water. Try different baits from time to time. I have enclosed a chicken in a large trap for a day or two, for luring animals in and to cover other smells. I have caught live, one of the foxes with no bait at all! Just used the live chicken bait two days then removed the chicken and left the ends open. Curiosity caught him! Dogs, cats and opossums could be a nuisance, catching so many, some, the same one, every night until I took them far away ! Patience! It sometimes took me several weeks or a month to catch a problem critter. Sometimes the first night. If you just set a live trap out in the open, with no attention for details, like attractive bait,camo, scents, location or proper size you will be lucky to catch anything but pets , opossums and coons. I have caught poor dogs and cats that barely could squeeze into the cage and spent many miserable hours until I released them! But most successful results are when the cage suits the animals instincts about entering it. Avoid leg hold traps if possible, due to the common problem of pets getting injured or killed by them! Do not use poison, Please! It is often very indiscriminate and kills unintended animals, robbing them of life, needlessly! Many of the poisons people use are particularly cruel and painful miserable deaths. Secondary poisoning of animals who eat poisoned carcasses may die or become very sick. All predator poisoning ops I have seen done, by so called pros, resulted in many non target deaths, from my own observations! I don't mind the careful use of some anticoagulant poisons or poisons with tartar emetics included, for control of serious rodent problems. The older anticoagulants (like warfarin or coumadin) have some reduced danger from deaths occurring from eating only one dose and the emetic containing products cause most dogs/cats/children to regurgitate the bait, hopefully before too much organ damage! I would prefer to get a clean quick kill(Shoot) or live trap any pest larger than a rat. Happy hunting and good luck with trapping if you go that way!
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